Anti-advertising campaigners are celebrating after plans for a massive digital advertising screen in the city centre were rejected.

Members of AdBlock Bristol joined with local businesses and residents to oppose plans by owners Insite Poster Properties Ltd to replace an existing billboard with a digital advertising screen measuring six by four metres (20ft by 13ft). The plans were rejected by the council on February 16.

Adblock members have said that in the process of dealing with the application, the council planners found that the existing billboard, on Malborough Street next to the Bearpit, never had planning permission in the first place.

Adblock is now pushing for the existing billboard, which measures 12 metres by three metres, to be removed.

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In a statement AdBlock Bristol said: “Advertisers wanted to replace a static billboard at the bottom of Marlborough Street, near Bristol’s central bus station and the Bearpit, with a new brightly-lit digital screen.

“Local residents and traders argued that it would be a distraction to motorists (to whom it would obviously be aimed), unsightly to pedestrians and harmful to the character of Bristol. The application was refused in February 2018.

“The existing hoarding – which is very large, known in the industry as ’96-sheet’ size – has been on the site for many years, without any planning consent.

Council officers discovered that the large billboard at the corner of Marlborough Street and the Bearpit never had planning permission in the first place

“Christmas Steps Arts Quarter, a group of local traders and residents, have raised the issue with the council, who say they will make sure the offending structure is removed.”

In rejecting plans for the digital light-up billboard, planners said it posed a distraction to drivers and, "would create an overly dominant and intrusive feature within the local street scene, which would be of detriment to the character and visual amenity of the local area".

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Hamilton Caswell, of local traders group the Christmas Steps Arts Quarter, said: “The applicant may appeal, but unless they are successful we look forward to seeing the site - a pleasant wall fronted by shrubs - revealed without either type of hoarding in front.”

Robbie Gillett, from Adblock Bristol, added: "Across Bristol, billboard companies like Insite Posters are trampling on local democracy so that they can flog their ad spaces to the highest bidder.